TABE 11/12 PRACTICE PACKET (Reading)

TABE 11/12

PRACTICE

PACKET

(Reading)

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READING ONE

Feeling the Full-Bodied Joy of Students Who

Got a Late Start

Graduates of an adult learning program run by the Queens Library received high school

equivalency diplomas at a ceremony at the branch in Flushing on Tuesday.CreditCreditUli Seit

for The New York Times

By Jim Dwyer of The New York Times

May 10, 2016

Because Tuesday was going to be a big day, Jahangir Alam quit work an

hour early and was home in Queens by 4 a.m. He slept fitfully, estimating

later that he¡¯d gotten an hour before his daughter, Mehrin, stirred for

school. She is in sixth grade. Mehrin and the rest of the family ¡ª her

brother, Tanveer, and Mr. Alam and his wife, Monira Alam ¡ª live in a onebedroom apartment in Woodside, $1,700 a month.

Tanveer, 19, had a full day ahead at Hunter College, where he is studying

computer science and completing his first year.

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The parents were going to Flushing. Mr. Alam, who finished fifth grade in

Bangladesh and has driven a yellow cab in New York for the past 20 years,

was graduating from an adult learning program with a high school

equivalency certificate.

Mr. Alam, 50, said that for decades he had felt the weight of its absence.

¡°Somehow, I couldn¡¯t get it done in my country,¡± he said. ¡°My son is the one

who got me here. He went to Bronx Science for high school. He encouraged

me every day. My wife, too.¡±

So on Tuesday, to the benedictional strains of ¡°Pomp and Circumstance¡± in

an auditorium at a branch of the Queens Library, Mr. Alam marched in a

line with about 50 other adults who had also earned the certificates. In

every conversation, they praised their teachers.

Rowdy jubilation is common enough at the graduations of young people

from high school and college; it is a shadow of the full-bodied joy that lights

up people who have come to their education later in life, even if it did not

include beer-pong tournaments.

One woman from Guyana had stopped attending school to raise her

children; another dropped out to help her parents, immigrants from

Mexico. Afrania Gonzalez, 72, of Rego Park, Queens, said she had grown up

on a farm in rural Colombia, where she went to work in a candle factory

when she was 11. In New York, she worked as a cleaning lady and raised

three children. After four years of study, she said, she planned to help

friends and relatives as a translator.

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Afrania Gonzalez, 72, a native of Colombia who now lives in Rego Park, Queens, said that after

four years of study, she planned to help friends and relatives as a translator.CreditUli Seit for The

New York Times

For all of them, finishing high school meant taking classes at learning

centers in library branches or community colleges, in between running

their lives.

Mr. Alam said he was one of 12 children. Their mother died when he was

very young. At school in the district of Narail, he moved in lock step with a

brother. ¡°My father said, ¡®We don¡¯t need two sets of books,¡¯¡± Mr. Alam said.

Around age 12, he found work in a department store. ¡°I spoke English with

the customers in the store,¡± he said.

In 1995, he and Ms. Alam moved to the United States. He took classes at

commercial schools in Jackson Heights, but did not stick with them. Their

son was on the way. ¡°All this time, I asked: Why did I quit?¡± he said. ¡°My

wife was encouraging me to go back.¡±

He has worked a 12-hour shift, 5 p.m. to 5 a.m., five or six days a week for

20 years, he said, honing his English as a devoted public radio listener. ¡°My

education was WNYC radio, Leonard Lopate and BBC at night,¡± Ms. Alam

said. ¡°Brian Lehrer during the day. I get a lot of information from them. I

give a little donation.¡±

As his son was getting ready for college, the endless nights, the drunk and

disorderly passengers, were making Mr. Alam weary. He took Civil Service

tests. He also found adult learning classes at LaGuardia Community College

and at the Long Island City branch of the library. The schedule was brutal:

all night driving the cab, then school during the day. His wife, who had two

years of college in Bangladesh, and his son were his cheerleaders.

¡°She still feeds my son every day by hand,¡± Mr. Alam said. ¡°He had a chance

to go to university on Long Island. Stony Brook. We didn¡¯t send him there

because we want to live together. We¡¯re not like you guys, age 17, you

separate. She will feed him.¡±

In turn, the son, Tanveer, helped him. ¡°I fell a little short on the math test,¡±

Mr. Alam said. ¡°Now I¡¯m learning the basics of computer science.¡±

The moment would be celebrated by the four people in the little apartment

in Woodside, and beyond.

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¡°All my friends went to university,¡± Mr. Alam said. ¡°Nobody understands

how they¡¯re educated and I¡¯m not. They will be proud, too.¡±

QUESTIONS FOR ¡°THE FULL-BODIED JOY OF STUDENTS WHO GOT A

LATE START.¡±

FULL-BODIED JOY---QUESTION ONE

Which of the following BEST expresses the main idea of the article?

A. Adult students get deeper satisfaction from educational accomplishments

because they have waited so long for their achievements and made many

sacrifices.

B. Adult students do not get excited about their educational accomplishments

because it has taken so long to achieve them

C. It is harder to return to school as an adult than to finish school when you are

young.

D. Adult Learning Centers form an important service in our society.

FULL-BODIED JOY¡ªQUESTION TWO

Which of the following details supports the idea that many adult students

didn¡¯t finish school when they were young because they had to support their

families?

A. ¡°In New York she worked as a cleaning lady and raised four children.¡±

B. ¡°Mr. Alam finished fifth grade in Bangladesh and has driven a yellow cab in New

York for the past 20 years.¡±

C. ¡°He encouraged me every day.¡±

D. ¡°Somehow I couldn¡¯t get it done in my country.¡±

FULL-BODIED JOY¡ªQUESTION THREE

Read this sentence:

The schedule was brutal: all night driving the cab, then school during the day.

What is the BEST meaning of ¡°brutal¡± as it is used in the sentence?

A.

B.

C.

D.

The schedule was very busy

The schedule was hard on his body

The schedule changed a lot.

The schedule was always the same.

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